Aisha Dow

Developers could be forced to build more bicycle parking spaces and showers for cyclists, under reforms to be considered by the state government.

Cycling advocates have complained of a growing shortage of bike spaces, particularly for CBD retail workers.

Now the planning department will consider a review of bicycle parking rates for new developments across Victoria.

Bike parking stations that can be found in Amsterdam, this one at Central Station. Photo: Penny Bradfield

Designers of large retail and office buildings already have to plan for one employee bike parking space for every 300 square metres, under the Melbourne Planning Scheme. But the requirements have not been updated since 2006, when far fewer people cycled into work.

Advertisement

In March, the City of Melbourne found about 15 per cent of vehicles during the morning peak were bicycles, up from 4 per cent in 2006.

Bicycle Network Victoria spokesman Garry Brennan said Victoria had led the way in bike parking provisions, but that legislation was now ''way out of date''.

He said a shortage of cycling facilities in the city was a common complaint, although ''smart'' building owners and employees were choosing to install extra bike racks and change rooms.

''The tenants and developers of new projects realise that they are much more saleable and rentable if they have plenty of bike parking and good after-trip facilities like showers,'' he said.

NAB employee Lana Casey, 26, rides from her Elsternwick home to her Docklands office three of four times a week, keeping a ''second wardrobe'' in her own generously sized locker provided by the bank.

The fitness fanatic said she would be hesitant to work with a company that did not provide bike parking and changing facilities.

''Riding to work is a huge part of my life because it cuts out traffic. It's faster for me to ride than drive,'' she said.

In 2010 global real estate firm Colliers International produced a white paper on the growing demand for cycling facilities in Victoria and Australia, declaring ''fit, bike-commuting workers are … the sort of employees that companies fight to recruit and retain''. They said companies could consider converting car parks in bicycle parking, with one car space providing room for 14 bikes.

For the first time in 2012 the company found bike parking was considered more important than car parking by tenants. Prior to 2010 Colliers International's research had found the opposite.

National director of research Nerida Conisbee said car parking had become less attractive because it was increasingly expensive and also harder to get into the city using a car.

Ms Conisbee said while developers would probably meet the growing demand, without extra legislation, ''I don't think it's a bad thing to encourage people to do it.''

The Property Council of Australia said it would prefer market forces to determine the number of bike parking spaces in buildings. ''In high-density areas like inner Melbourne, the signals are very hard to resist,'' Victorian deputy executive director Asher Judah said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure has confirmed the government will consider a review of bicycle parking rates.

Melbourne City Council has also signalled its intention to push for a bicycle parking rate review. Transport chairwoman Cathy Oke said the council could implement its own local planning rules around bicycle spaces, if the government chose not to pursue reform.

Cr Oke said the council could not forever keep installing bike parking hoops on CBD footpaths, because those areas were needed for growing numbers of pedestrians.

Hodson's daughter: Witness protection not safe

"I feel sorry for anyone coming into witness protection," says the tearful daughter of police informer Terence Hodson after the State Coroner delivered an open finding into his murder and that of his wife Christine in 2004.